Demonstration of Ranking Issues for Students: A Case Study

I. Elaine Allen

Babson College

Norean Radke Sharpe

Babson College
Journal of Statistics Education Volume 13, Number 3 (2005),

Abstract

This article uses a case study of 2001 town and city data that we analyzed for Boston Magazine. We use this case study to demonstrate the challenges of creating a valid ranking structure. The data consist of three composite indices for 147 individual townships in the Boston metropolitan area representing measures of public safety; the environment; and health. We report the data and the basic ranking procedure used in the magazine article, as well as a discussion of alternative ranking procedures. In particular, we demonstrate the impact of additional adjustment for the size of population, even when per capita data are used. This case study presents an opportunity for discussion of fundamental data analysis concepts in all levels of statistics courses.

Keywords: Data Analysis; Demographics; Graphics; Rank methods.

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